| Hazard, Kentucky | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Your Mountain Television WYMT (general) WYMT Mountain News (newscasts) WKYT / KYT (on DT2) |
| Channels | Digital: 12 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 57.1 CBS HD 57.2 CBS SD (WKYT feed) |
| Affiliations | CBS (since 1985) |
| Owner | Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee, Inc.) |
| First air date | October 20, 1969 |
| Call letters' meaning | We're Your Mountain Television |
| Sister station(s) | WKYT-TV |
| Former callsigns | WKYH-TV (1969-1985) |
| Former channel number(s) | 57 (UHF analog, 1969-2009) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1969-1985) |
| Transmitter power | 50 kW |
| Height | 397.6 m |
| Facility ID | 24915 |
| Website | wymtnews.com (separate section of WKYT's Website) |
WYMT-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Hazard, Kentucky. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 12 from a transmitter south of the city in Perry County. Owned by Gray Television, the station is sister to Lexington's CBS affiliate WKYT-TV. Although it identifies as a station in its own right, WYMT is considered a semi-satellite of WKYT. It has its own studios on Black Gold Boulevard in Hazard but some internal operations are based at WKYT's studios on Winchester Road (U.S. 60) near the Brighton section of Lexington.
WYMT airs its own identifications, commercials, and syndicated programming such as The King of Queens, The Andy Griffith Show, and Family Feud. This station clears all CBS programming except CBS News Sunday Morning and Face the Nation in order to air paid religious programming and college basketball games. However, WKYT clears both shows. One noticeable difference in the stations' schedules is that The Young and the Restless airs on WYMT at the same time as most other affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone at 12:30 pm. WKYT airs it at 1 p.m. because it has an hour-long noon newscast.
Beginning February 26, 2010 the station stretched non-HD programming from 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9 aspect ratio, a process called "Stretch-o-Vision".
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It began broadcasting on analog UHF channel 57 as WKYH-TV (meaning KentuckY Hazard) on October 20, 1969 as an NBC affiliate. Prior to its inception, some counties in southeastern Kentucky were among the last remaining parts of the country unable to clearly receive a commercial television signal over the air. Kentucky Educational Television had set up a transmitter there the year before. Although this area is considered part of the Lexington market, none of that city's television signals covered the area at the time. Lexington was an all-UHF market, and UHF stations don't get good reception in rugged terrain. This area has long been one of the poorest in the nation, and many people still couldn't afford to buy a television set. Such conditions made the Lexington stations unwilling to set up even low-powered satellites in this area. Instead, WKYH was founded by local businessman Bill Gorman, who served as mayor of Hazard from 1978 until his death in 2010.[1]
In keeping with the region's strong musical traditions, country, bluegrass, and Southern Gospel music constituted a good part of WKYH's early local programs. These shows lasted well into the 1980s (in the case of the Goins Brothers, as late as 1994) after country-music programs had fallen out of favor even on other Southern stations.
Throughout its entire run as WKYH, the station had a very primitive look. Much of its equipment had been bought as surplus from other stations, and was usually in a poor state of repair after years of use. This was especially true of the transmitter; at times the signal was barely acceptable due to transmitter problems. It didn't even have a character generator for newscasts. The station was unable to get a network feed, forcing station engineers to rely on microwave links from WLEX-TV in Lexington and WCYB-TV in Bristol, Virginia for network programming. WCYB was used as a backup in case WLEX preempted an NBC show to show local programming. Whenever the microwave system failed, WKYH was forced to switch to and from WLEX or WCYB's signal, usually with less-than-satisfactory results. When this happened, WKYH sometimes aired WLEX or WCYB's commercials or station IDs when it was unable to cover them up in time. As such, the station never thrived, even when cable arrived in the area in the early 1980s.
In 1985, Gorman sold the station to Kentucky Central Insurance Company, then owner of WKYT. The new owner changed the calls to the current WYMT (meaning We're Your Mountain Television). Around the same time, Kentucky Central had its affiliation changed to CBS to match its new sister station. With wealthier ownership, WYMT was able to build a much more modern studio and a stronger transmitter. The station also got a significant on-air facelift, making it look much more modern. When Kentucky Central went bankrupt in 1993, WYMT and WKYT were bought by Gray Communications (now Gray Television). WYMT was assigned VHF channel 12 as its final transmission frequency as part of the Federal Communications Commission-mandated transition to digital broadcasting. One benefit to viewers in the area is that VHF signals "bend" over mountainous terrain better than UHF making reception available over a larger area than was previously available. As of February 17, 2009, WYMT broadcasts are exclusively in digital.
Currently this station, two Christian television stations–WLJC-TV in Beattyville and WAGV in Harlan (a satellite of WLFG in Grundy, Virginia)–along with KET satellites WKHA in Hazard and WKPI in Pikeville are the only full-power stations that can be received over-the-air in much of this region. In addition, WOBZ-LP (which is partially owned by former WKYH weatherman/sportscaster Joey Kesler) is a low-power station serving the London area. There are also several Public-access television cable TV channels that serve the region.
WYMT primarily serves 20 counties[2] in the eastern part of Kentucky and several counties in southwest Virginia and western West Virginia. It also appears on cable television in Claiborne County, Tennessee. Although its coverage area includes the far eastern part of the Lexington market, its stated coverage area also includes portions of four different DMAs. The easternmost counties (Pike, Floyd, Martin, Johnson, and Lawrence) are in the Huntington/Charleston, West Virginia market (home territory for sister station and NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV). Letcher and Leslie Counties in Kentucky, Wise County including the Independent City of Norton, Dickenson County including Clintwood in Virginia are in the Tri-Cities DMA. Bell, Harlan, and McCreary Counties are part of the Knoxville market (home territory for sister station and fellow CBS affiliate WVLT-TV). All other counties in WYMT's viewing area are considered part of the Lexington DMA.
In the 1970s as WKYH, the newscasts were known as 57 NewsService. Currently during the week, WYMT produces separate morning, 4, 6, and 11 o'clock newscasts on weekdays. It simulcasts WKYT's weekday noon (though only the first half hour), 5, and 5:30 broadcasts. WYMT doesn't air any weekend newscasts, instead simulcasting WKYT's newscasts. Although that station has been airing newscasts in high definition since April 11, 2007, WYMT simulcasts them in standard definition. In addition to its main studios, it operates two news bureaus and shares one with WKYT. This includes the Cumberland Valley Bureau on North 12th Street in Middlesboro and the Big Sandy Bureau on Church Road in Harold. The shared Southern Kentucky Bureau is in Somerset. There are additional WKYT reporters seen on this station.
In WYMT weather segments, it uses regional National Weather Service radar data presented on-screen in a system called "Live Pinpoint Doppler". WKYT operates its own weather radar called "Live First Alert Defender".[3] Sports Overtime is WYMT's weekly sports show that airs on Friday nights from August to April which covers high school athletics. A Saturday edition focusing on college sports was started in 2006 and ran until the station dropped weekend newscasts at the end of October 2008. To replace the loss of the Saturday show, WYMT now airs the Prep Zone Weekly Show on Thursday nights.
WYMT's current newscast titles are Mountain News This Morning (5-7am), Mountain News First at Four (4pm), Mountain News at Six, and Mountain News NightWatch (11pm)
Only includes personnel based at WYMT. See WKYT-TV for personnel based there.
Anchors[4]
WYMT Sky Alert Weather Team
Sports
Reporters
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